Friedrich Kuhlau, Sonatina in C major

At the beginning of the 19th century, the young German pianist and composer Friedrich Kuhlau began to perform regularly in public, being applauded by a pleasantly surprised audience since, as a result of his copious works for flute, everyone believed he was a flutist. To such an extent that he was even called "the Beethoven of the flute." The truth is that Kuhlau didn't know how to play the instrument, and if he wrote for it, it was exclusively due to economic reasons: a market requirement.

An author of a good number of operas, nowadays the author is remembered mainly for his piano works. In addition to a Concerto, a series of sonatinas written for pedagogical purposes stand out, whose study today no future pianist can neglect, as they constitute an indispensable exercise before the approach of the sonatas of the great masters.

Friedrich Kulhau, in 1828
(1786 - 1832)

A Beethoven's friend
Born south of Lüneburg, Germany, at age twenty, he fled with his family to Copenhagen to avoid being recruited by the Napoleonic army. There, he introduced the Danes to the work of Beethoven, whom he admired. Later he had the good fortune to meet him, in 1825, during a trip to Vienna. It is said that they were great friends. Apparently, the admiration was mutual. It is said that both attended, as good friends, a somewhat scandalous party at which, in the heat of the champagne, they exchanged sparkling canons composed about their surnames. Some add that Beethoven, the next day, remembered nothing.

Sonatas or sonatinas?
Literally, a sonatina is a small sonata. More than a musical form, the word is a title the author has had at hand to designate a piece in sonata form but shorter and lighter, or technically less demanding, than a typical sonata.
The beautiful sonatinas of Muzio Clementi's opus 36 fully comply with this characterization. But this is only sometimes the case. There are sonatinas with demands no less severe. For example, Ravel's Sonatina or Alkan's Sonatina. And of course, Beethoven's "easy sonatas", from Opus 49, with medium difficulty, but difficulty nonetheless.

Kuhlau - Sonatina No. 4 in C major, Op.55 No 1
Composed in 1823, Kuhlau's Opus 55 contains six sonatinas. All of them are short, in two or three movements, averaging five minutes in length. Their first movements have a very brief or non-existent development section. The one we are listening to has only two movements, both lively.

Movements:
00:00  Allegro
02:49  Vivace

The rendition is by the Osaka-born master in 1934, Mitsuru Nagai.